Time running out on prison jobs for disabled workers in SEIU dispute

A little more than two dozen disabled people, including veterans, who work as janitors at a state prison facility in Vacaville are poised to lose their jobs at the end of this month due to a protest lodged by the Service Employees International Union Local 1000.

The conflict has become complicated for Gov. Gavin Newsom and members of the Legislature, who appear hesitant to step in given the union’s potential to sue over a situation that it flagged as a violation of civil service protections.

The workers are employed by PRIDE Industries, a Roseville nonprofit that offers workplace opportunities for the disabled, recovering addicts and victims of trauma through contracts it maintains with government facilities and other businesses.

About 60 of PRIDE’s workers, about half of whom are disabled, currently work at the Vacaville Correctional Medical Facility, where they clean cells and workstations.

PRIDE workers have been providing these services at the Vacaville facility for about six years. But SEIU Local 1000 filed a formal complaint with the State Personnel Board, challenging the arrangement on the grounds that the positions should go to union workers under state law.

The board’s executive officer, Suzanne Ambrose, agreed with the union, finding in May 2023 that the state’s contract with PRIDE for the facility was unlawful. That triggered layoff notices for the workers earlier this year, although they’ve received some extensions since then.

Now the workers are set to lose their jobs on June 30, but their positions won’t be filled by SEIU members. Instead, their roles will be handed off to inmates because union employees aren’t available.

To save their jobs, the workers have been trying to engage with the SEIU, which they’re willing to join. They held a rally on the Capitol steps this month while Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, D- Suisun City, is sponsoring legislation to address their situation.

AB 912 would create a pilot civil service apprenticeship program for people with disabilities.

The bill passed off the Assembly floor on a 79-0 vote on June 3. But with PRIDE’s contract with the state set to expire at the end of the month, it would be signed into law too late at this point to help the workers.

The only way to save their jobs now seems to be through negotiation with the SEIU Local 1000 and emergency legislation.

“I’d really like them to come to the table and work with local legislators,” said Ameer Habeeb, a disabled Air Force veteran who oversees PRIDE’s contract at Vacaville and whose job is among those on the chopping block.

“It’s incumbent on every involved to get this resolved in a positive way…I don’t see why the union and the state can’t say this needs to be worked out.”

Habeeb said the people on his crew need their jobs in order to support themselves and their families but often can’t work in other settings. That’s because, he said, PRIDE makes special accommodations for its workers, allowing them to take extra breaks during the day or to take more days off for medical appointments, which can be essential for the disabled.

“If this doesn’t get worked out and my folks have to leave,” Habeeb said, “it will be devastating on my staff.”

Newsom spokeswoman Diana Crofts-Pelayo said the governor sympathizes with their plight and would welcome a plan to help the Vacaville workers in danger of losing their job.

“While we don’t typically comment on pending or proposed legislation, the Governor is open to considering a long-term solution through the legislative process,” she said in written statement. “His record speaks for itself — from ending subminimum wages to expanding reasonable accommodations, he remains committed to working with the Legislature on policies that create pathways to employment for Californians with disabilities.”

SEIU Local 1000 did not respond to requests from Capitol Weekly to comment on the situation, but the issue has garnered the attention of retired U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho, the Central Valley Democrat who was the primary sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, who is publicly urging the state to act to keep the workers in their jobs.

“It’s incumbent on every involved to get this resolved in a positive way,” Coelho told Capitol Weekly, saying that it would be wrong to layoff gainfully employed disable workers when they often struggle to find work. “I don’t see why the union and the state can’t say this needs to be worked out,” he said.

The clock is ticking loudly for the workers, who are desperate for someone to help them. “There are 58 lives hanging in the balance,” wrote the workers in a June 9 letter to Anica Walls, president of SEIU Local 1000, which included profiles and photos of some of them. “We hope that the Golden State is a place where workers with disabilities are not expendable.”